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[Illustration: " Captain Scraggs threw his brown derby on the deck and leaped upon it. "]

CAPTAIN SCRAGGS

OR

THE GREEN PEA PIRATES

BY PETER B. KYNE

AUTHOR OF CAPPY RICKS, THE LONG CHANCE, THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS, WEBSTER MAN'S MAN, ETC.

ILLUSTRATED BY

GORDON GRANT

GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1919, BY PETER B. KYNE

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES AT THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N.Y.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY THE SUNSET MAGAZINE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"Captain Scraggs threw his brown derby on the deck and leaped upon it" Frontispiece ( See page 6 )

FACING PAGE

"'Great Snakes!' he yelled and fell back against the cabin wall" 156

"Captain Scraggs ... broke from the circle of savages ... and fled for the beach" 232

"Tabu Tabu ... planted a mighty right in the centre of Mr. Gibney's physiognomy" 252

CAPTAIN SCRAGGS

OR

THE GREEN PEA PIRATES

CHAPTER I

They had seen the fog rolling down the coast shortly after the Maggie had rounded Pilar Point at sunset and headed north. Captain Scraggs has been steamboating too many unprofitable years on San Francisco Bay, the Suisun and San Pablo sloughs and dogholes and the Sacramento River to be deceived as to the character of that fog, and he remarked as much to Mr. Gibney. "We'd better turn back to Halfmoon Bay and tie up at the dock," he added.

"Calamity howler!" retorted Mr. Gibney and gave the wheel a spoke or two. "Scraggsy, you're enough to make a real sailor sick at the stomach."

"But I tell you she's a tule fog, Gib. She rises up in the marshes of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, drifts down to the bay and out the Golden Gate and just naturally blocks the wheels of commerce while she lasts. Why, I've known the ferry boats between San Francisco and Oakland to get lost for hours on their twenty minute run and all along of a blasted tule fog."

"I don't doubt your word a mite, Scraggsy. I never did see a ferry boat skipper that knew shucks about sailorizing," the imperturbable Gibney responded. "Me, I'll smell my way home in any tule fog."

"Maybe you can an' maybe you can't, Gib, although far be it from me to question your ability. I'll take it for granted. Nevertheless, I ain't a goin' to run the risk o' you havin' catarrh o' the nose an' confusin' your smells to night. You ain't got nothin' at stake but your job, whereas if I lose the Maggie I lose my hull fortune. Bring her about, Gib, an' let's hustle back."

"Don't be an old woman," Mr. Gibney pleaded. "Scraggs, you just ain't got enough works inside you to fill a wrist watch."

"I ain't a goin' to poke around in the dark an' a tule fog, feelin' for the Golden Gate," Captain Scraggs shrilled peevishly.

"Hell's bells an' panther tracks! I've got my old courses, an' if I foller them we can't help gettin' home."

"You do, Scraggsy. But it won't avail you nothin'. You're only master becuz of a gentleman's agreement between us two, an' because I'm man enough to figger there's certain rights due you as owner o' the Maggie . But don't you forget that accordin' to the records o' the Inspector's office, I'm master of the Maggie , an' the way I figger it, whenever there's any call to show a little real seamanship, that gentleman's agreement don't stand."

"But this ain't one o' them times, Gib."

"You're whistlin' it is. If we run from this here fog, it's skiffs to battleships we don't get into San Francisco Bay an' discharged before six o'clock to morrow night... Continue reading book >>